His hands have touched such famous faces as Jennifer Aniston and Gisele Bundchen, Gwyneth Paltrow and Selena Gomez.

When I make a request to meet with Hung Vanngo on Friday, though, it’s not a celebrity demand that keeps him away for another 24 hours. No, Vanngo, whose makeup artistry is a staple on fashion show runways, awards shows, red carpets and the world’s major fashion magazines, was instead busy visiting his mom.

“I love Calgary and it’s where my family lives,” says Vanngo, who also has two siblings in the city. “I like to come back here whenever I can.”

The main reason for his return on this last weekend of February, though, is to pay it forward to the department store chain that, back in the early 2000s, put its faith in a makeup artist from Canada with big dreams.

“They were so supportive, it was really my first money client,” says Vanngo, who on Saturday is making his own celebrity appearance as part of the opening weekend celebrations at the new Calgary Saks Fifth Avenue store at Chinook Centre. “When I first moved to New York, I was basically broke . . . Saks gave me a steady income for a few years.”

Such down-to-earth values may seem in stark contrast to the stratospheric heights Vanngo’s career has been reaching of late, but not at all surprising when you consider his beginnings.

When he came to Canada as a boy in 1990, he’d already lived in two countries, his home of Vietnam and then Thailand, where he and his brother and sister lived in a refugee camp. “My father passed away when I was one year old,” says Vanngo, whose mom joined the family in Calgary after they arrived. “My only dream then was getting out to a normal country.”

A talented artist who liked to do black and white sketches, he also discovered fashion magazines while a student at Crescent Heights High School. After graduation, he studied hairdressing at Marvel College.

It wasn’t long after he began winning hair styling competitions, though, that he also discovered makeup artistry.

“In the hair salon there was a makeup station where I would play around,” says Vanngo, who moved to Toronto in 2003 to further his career, then New York City in 2006. “I realized it was my true passion.”

While still living in Calgary, he reached out to Kelly Streit, the famed model agent who launched the careers of Heather Marks and Tricia Helfer, to name just two. “I left him a lot of messages,” Vanngo says with a laugh. “My English is not great, but it was really bad then.”

Streit acted on gut instinct and went to Vanngo for a haircut and chat. He took an instant liking to the shy but determined young man.

“I gave him a really difficult Versace ad and told him to recreate it on a model,’” says Streit, who on Saturday is on hand at the Saks Fifth Avenue store to welcome his friend back to Calgary. “He did it way better than the Versace ad.”

Not long after that first big break from Saks, Vanngo (who changed his name from its original Van Ngo a few years ago), began to amass an impressive client list: companies such as Lancome and Estee Lauder, magazines including Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle, as well as a who’s-who list of actors and models, including January Jones, Kristen Wiig, Celine Dion and Rooney Mara. In 2017, InStyle also named Vanngo its top makeup artist of the year.

“It’s like picking your favourite child,” he responds with a polite laugh when asked whose beautiful face provided him with the best canvas. Nor does he bite when probed for any celebrity tidbits.

“These people are very private and they trust you,” he says of his exclusive clientele. “It’s a lot like family, you spend a lot of time with them.”

Hung Vanngo at an opening event for the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Calgary.

He will say which star he’d love to see in his makeup chair, though. “Angelina Jolie,” he says. “A couple of years ago I said I wanted to work with (fashion model) Kate Moss and, last year, they flew me out to England to work with her.”

Vanngo’s seeming modesty and loyal nature, says Streit, is not an act. “In 2015, he came to me and said, ‘it’s my turn to watch your back now,’” says Streit, who credits the star stylist with helping him return to his work after a prolonged absence due to a personal struggle. “Hung is a great artist, but he’s also a wonderful person.”

Vanngo — who continues to call New York City home when he’s not on a plane flying to assignments all over the world — knows his story is an extraordinary one.

“I’m just going to appreciate everything that comes,” he says with a smile, before his show at the store that gave him his start in New York City.

“There are so many things that have happened in my career that I never expected. I just believe that you should work hard, be humble. That’s the key.”

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